Chicago Jewish History

A short history of the Chicago Jewish Community.

Jews, mostly Ashkenazi, first settled permanently in Chicago beginning in the 1830s. A group of German Jews, mostly from Bavaria, settled in Chicago in the late 1830’s and early 1840’s. Jewish migration to Chicago was often due to their fleeing the poverty, discrimination and even the violent pogroms they suffered from in Europe. The first Jewish religious service was held on Yom Kippur in 1845.

Many of the early Jewish settlers were street peddlers with packs on their backs who opened stores once their financial means allowed. Some of these stores were the basis of larger companies in time.

With constant immigration, the community grew. By the time of the American Civil war, a company of Jews 100 strong was raised, and it joined the 82nd Regiment of the Illinois Volunteers.

In the wake of the 1871 Great Chicago Fire, Jews moved from the Downtown area to Lakeside communities including Hyde Park, Kenwood, and South Shore.
 
The Eastern European Immigration

Starting in the 1870s the Chicago Jewish population swelled, due to Jewish immigration from the shtetls and towns of Eastern Europe – mainly from Poland and Russia. They settled in the Near Westside – Maxwell Street area, which at the time was one of the poorest areas of Chicago. Due to differences in religious affiliation (German Jews tended to be reform, Eastern European Jews – Orthodox) as well as in culture, dress, and language, these Eastern European Jews lived in separate communities from the German Jews that preceded them. They worked as peddlers, market/bazaar stall owners, artisans, petty entrepreneurs and in factories – especially in the garment-related industries. They were often at the forefront of several progressive unions. Some 40 synagogues, along with other Jeiwsh institutions, functioned in this area alone, as the Eastern European Jews partially re-recreated the shtetl-like environment they hailed from.

By 1910, with increased income, English fluency, and American education, the Eastern European Jews were moving to new neighborhoods, including westward to North Lawndale (which contained some 60 synagogues by 1930 – 58 of them, Orthodox), northwestward to Albany Park, Logan Square and Humboldt Park, and to the north along Lake Michigan, including Lakeview, Rogers Park, and Uptown. They also moved into the German Jewish community on the South Side.
 
Moving to the Suburbs

By 1930 there were some 275,000 Jews in Chicago, some 8% of Chicago’s total population. This also made it the third largest Jewish population of any city in the world after New York City and Warsaw. Jews. In that year some 80% of Chicago’s Jews were of Eastern European heritage.

The first Jews to move into the suburbs of Greater Chicago were the often-prosperous descendants of the German Jews. These groups moved to the North Shore area of Chicago – mainly Glencoe and Highland Park – after World War 1. Until 1950, however, only 5% of the Jewish community was located in the suburbs.

In the early 1950s increased prosperity, the widespread adoption of the motor car, government GI grants, and the removal of most restrictive local laws against Jews saw waves of Jews moving to the suburbs. Land developers, who were often Jewish themselves, built single-family homes on then inexpensive land in suburbs such as Lincolnwood and Skokie, which greatly appealed to Jewish families. As a result, by the early 1960s some 40% of the Jewish population had moved into the suburbs. Indeed, Jews settled in most suburbs of Chicago, except those that still barred Jews from moving in – notably Kenilworth and Lake Forest.
 
Late Twentieth Century

By 1982 the Jews in Greater Chicago had declined to around 248,000 mainly due to assimilation, loss of immigration and low birth rates.

By 1995 most Jews, and certainly most Jewish institutions and infrastructure, were located in the Northern part of Chicago and its suburbs. Jewish communities were widespread with 62% of Jews now living in the suburbs. By this date Jews were estimated to make up almost 50% of Glencoe, Highland Park, Lincolnwood and Skokie, with large numbers of Jews in Buffalo Grove, Evanston, Morton Grove, Niles, Northbrook, Wilmette, and Winnetka. Except for a few synagogues, the Jews in the further north and west suburbs were often lacking local Jewish related infrastructure.

Interestingly, in 1995 Jews in Chicago attended university at twice the rate of the overall population and commensurately had higher than average incomes.
 
Present day.

The 2020 Census reported some 319,600 Jews living in Chicago, representing some 11.8% of the current population. It was served by over 30 schools, 8 Jewish community centers, dozens of synagogues, and hundreds of other fraternal, social, cultural, charitable, Zionist and political organizations.

Sources:

Encyclopedia of Chicago
History of the Jews in Chicago – Wiki.